Rare digital books get a makeover

"There is a huge interest among people -especially youngsters -for rare texts. But they have no idea where to find them," says Subbaiah Yadalam.Divya Shekhar | ET Bureau | Updated: September 19, 2016, 08:50 IST

Lack of access to, or cost of, books should not hinder anyone wanting to read about history, says Subbaiah Yadalam, founder of the Rare Book Society of India (RBSI).

It is this philosophy that made him curate rare digital books from across the world and make it available on the RBSI website and to its 86,000-strong Facebook community. "There is a huge interest among people -especially youngsters -for rare texts. But they have no idea where to find them," Yadalam says.

He is right about the heightened interest, for sure. A recent post about the world's first English translation of the Bhagavad Gita by Sir Charles Wilkins (published in 1785) got more than 1,200 likes and 225 shares. At any time, there are people from more than 75 countries accessing the site.

"Every book is downloaded at least by 500 people and 50% of members are below 33 years of age," he states. Hence, for the first time since its inception in 2009, RBSI's site is getting an overhaul to make easier access to its 2,500 odd rare digital books, thousands of antique maps, photos and paintings.

"Earlier, latest uploads would be visible on top, followed by a list of other materials. It was difficult to search for a specific thing," Yadalam explains.

On Indian history alone, the site has 36 broad themes including 'Literature, Music and Dance of Ancient India', 'India -After the Advent of Photography', 'The Grand Mughals', 'History of Mysore', 'Hindu Empires of Southern India', 'History of India's Trade and Industry', 'Astronomy, Ayurveda, Yoga, Science and Mathematics in Ancient India' and 'India -As Seen By Foreign Travellers'.

Each is being further classified into subsections like essays, books, paintings, rare manuscripts, maps and photo graphs, sculptures and videos. "The process should be completed in a month's time," Yadalam says.

Fifty-three year-old Yadalam, who belongs to a family of businessmen and whose personal collection includes 250 rare book titles, curates digital, out-of-copyright books from websites like The Internet Archive, Google Books and Project Gutenberg. He coordinates with about 15 museums from across the world to source any relevant material.

He speaks passionately about the alternative narrative around history being shaped by social media and how we should use that to our advantage to become a more art and heritage-conscious society. "I hope the RBSI will help students learn from these original sources rather than their textbooks alone. Real learning will come from reading and accepting many versions of the same subject," he says.